


A Repeat Performance - Part 1

by kaizoku



Series: A Repeat Performance [1]
Category: Firefly
Genre: Chromatic Character, Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, F/F, Female Character of Color, Femslash, First Time, POV Female Character, Post-Serenity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-15
Updated: 2011-03-15
Packaged: 2017-10-17 00:04:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/170798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaizoku/pseuds/kaizoku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Saffron just bothers her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Repeat Performance - Part 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lea_hazel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lea_hazel/gifts).



> A zillion thank you's to Mei and Mad for audiencing and betaing! ♥
> 
> Icons from [here](http://visualwit.dreamwidth.org/23724.html#cutid2), [here](http://community.livejournal.com/socialxscene/272311.html), and [here](http://community.livejournal.com/thefixedfoot/15904.html).

  
   
   
 

  


There haven't been many jobs lately and it's driving her a mite crazy. They’ve spun between the Georgia system and Huang Long for several months, picking up little jobs here and there, stopping on obscure moons where fuel prices are exorbitantly high but Alliance presence is low. That's why there's no question in Zoe's mind that it ain't by accident when they run into Saffron (aka Bridget, aka Yolanda, aka who knows what else) on a rock that's more backwash than backwater.

"Fancy meeting you all, way out here," Saffron drawls. She's got her pert ass parked on the edge of their mule, twirling a copper lock of hair around her finger, swinging long, bare legs back and forth though there's a nip in the air. She don't even look concerned at the firearms aimed at her head.

"You best be leaving now if you don't want to meet a bullet," Zoe tells her.

"All up close and personal," Jayne grunts.

Saffron's laugh tinkles in the clear air, and Kaylee voices the question that's already in Zoe's head:

"How did you find us anyway?"

"Tip from a friend." She shrugs, grinning. "Haven't had much in the way of business lately, and I thought a nice big Alliance reward might do the trick."

"Oh, shit."

Zoe's inclined to shoot first, shoot later, and ask questions never, but Kaylee's hand on her arm stays the impulse. Been too much bloodshed lately. She holsters her piece and has Saffron pinned against the cold metal in two seconds flat, strong hands tight on delicate wrist bones. She don't fool herself that Saffron couldn't get out of it if she wanted to.

"Rope," Zoe says shortly and waits, hearing Saffron's breathy giggle as she wiggles against her weight, until Kaylee cuts her a round of twine. Somewhere in the background, Simon's protesting.

"So, we takin' her back to the boat?" Kaylee asks.

"Don't have much choice." She jerks the rope a little tighter, then hauls Saffron into the back of the mule.

"We could shoot 'er," Jayne comments. Zoe sighs.

"Just drive, Jayne."

* * *

No one is happy with the new addition to the crew. Knowing they know what she is don't seem to stop Saffron from trying out her seduction schtick all over again, starting with Mal (he ignores her), moving through Simon (the stuttering is ridiculous) and straight -- or well, maybe not straight, exactly -- onto Kaylee (who laughs it off) and even River (who looks disturbingly interested). She gives Jayne a miss, and when his hands stray southwest under the dining table, they all end up covered in soup.

"Gorramit, woman," Jayne shouts, orange-brown mush spattered over the Blue Sun logo. "This is my favorite shirt!"

"Keep your hands to yourself next time," Saffron says coolly. Somehow there's no soup on _her_. Zoe dabs at her blouse, but it's brown already and been stained worse.

"You might want to try taking your own advice, lady," Zoe snorts.

"I'm sorry," Saffron says, solicitous, arching an eyebrow. "Have I been too forward with you, Zoe?"

And that's when Zoe realizes, she got skipped too. It shouldn't rankle her, and it don't. It's just that eyebrow Saffron is always a-raisin'.

The eyebrow bothers her.

* * *

When she's not flirting with the crew, Saffron's talk is all about prospects she got, jobs they oughta pull on this planet or that. 'Course, there's a list as long as Jayne's gun of places they don't go no more, and that includes most of the wealthy ones.

Right at the moment, they're hauling fertilizer out to a farming community on Zephyr, a completely above-board job if there ever was one. Recently it seems like there's a new world populated every month, while the Alliance hand-outs keep getting thinner. Still, the suns keep shining, the grass keeps growing and the cows keep shitting. Serenity's just doing her part to spread it around the 'verse.

"I've a mind to set you down there with the rest of this go se," she overhears Mal saying as she comes up the walk. "But I can't countenance doing that to folk that ain't done me a harm."

"So, what will you do with me?" Saffron's voice, a silky undercurrent of suggestion in it.

Mal grunts, and Zoe can picture him pushing a hand through his hair, mouth curled in annoyance. She pauses and leans against the wall, out of sight but within hearing.

"Take you to Beaumonde, I suppose. And don't that bring back pleasant memories. Let me know if you're fixin' to do something nefarious, will you?"

There's a pause. "You could let me stay."

"I could," Mal acknowledges. "But tell me, why in the nine monkey-fucking hells would I do that?"

She don't hear the rest, because suddenly River's there and Zoe about jumps out of her skin.

"All running away from something," River says.

"I'm sorry?" Zoe says.

“Three thimbles and a pea,” River says.

"Child, I got no clue what you're on about," Zoe says. She wants to take a look around the corner, but River takes her hand and draws a circle on it and Zoe stills.

"She's your thimble,” River tells her. “You have to keep her."

“Keep who?”

By the time Zoe has made sense of what River’s saying (she _thinks_ ), the conversation she was eavesdropping on has finished and Mal is making a cup of coffee in the kitchen.

“Captain, is Saffron leaving?” Zoe asks.

Mal turns around. "You got an opinion, let's hear it."

"No, sir," Zoe shakes her head. "But apparently River does."

"Oh boy," Mal says.

* * *


End file.
